Wildlife enthusiast Amol Bais' click to be immortalised as a postal stamp

Amol Bais, a wildlife photographer and headmaster of a school for tribal students at Durgapur, located on the periphery of the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, had clicked this photograph, of a cub embracing its mother. Now, the picture will be used for a commemorative postage stamp, as announced by state forest minister, the DNA reported on Wednesday.

Bais captured the picture of the tigress and her cub in the Pandharpauni area of the Tadoba Tiger Reserve, one of the oldest reserves in the country, on 1 January, 2016.

The stamp, immortalising the picture that represents the tigers of Tadoba in all their glory, will be released on 29 July, to celebrate Global Tiger Day, sources from forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar’s office told the Times Of India .

Recalling the day he took the photograph, Bais said he was in the jungle for a morning safari when he spotted the tigress Maya crouching for a kill. While he could not get any shots of the tigress in mid-hunt, what he did manage to capture was a delicate moment of the cub “hugging” its mother.

Bais has now been photographing tigers and other wildlife for a decade now, the DNA report said. One of his best moments was when ‘Save the Tiger’, a Facebook page on tiger conservation started by wildlife enthusiast Raj Krishnani, posted his photograph and it ended up getting more than 2.4 lakh “likes” and was shared by 24,000 people.

The image was also published by Daily Mirror in Britain. Bais told DNA that he was overjoyed when his image was presented by the forest minister to various dignitaries, including Union environment minister and was used for pamphlets of Tadoba National Park.